Shanghai looks expensive from the Bund, but the city runs on ¥2 metro rides, ¥8 fried dumplings and state museums that charge nothing. Three days here spend more on soup dumplings than on entry tickets.
Retired parents paper the plane trees with laminated ads for their unmarried children — height, salary, hukou, apartment status. It fills the park's northeast corner Saturday and Sunday, roughly 12:00 to 17:00, and the park itself opens at 06:00.
A two-block lane off Yan'an Road where 1930s canteens still trade: Xiao Shaoxing salt-water chicken with rice, Wuyue Renjia noodles, Deda pastries. Most bowls land between ¥15 and ¥30 and nearly every shopfront has a picture menu.
Set in the 1934 Shanghai Race Club building on People's Square, four floors trace the city from fishing village to treaty port, and the original HSBC bronze lions stand inside. Entry is free, Tuesday to Sunday, 09:00 to 17:00 with last admission 16:00.
The Former French Concession's plane-tree spine runs 1.2km to the wedge-shaped 1924 Wukang Mansion. Blue enamel plaques mark the villas of Ba Jin, Song Qingling and Huang Xing; walking it and the side lanes off Fuxing West Road costs nothing.
A two-storey municipal market wedged into the old concession: live river shrimp, eels, fresh tofu skin and seasonal bayberries downstairs, dried mushrooms and spices above. Browsing is free, a bag of fruit ¥10-20. Open roughly 06:00 to 18:00.
Shengjianbao — pork buns fried crisp on the base, soupy inside, dusted with sesame and spring onion. Four to a portion for about ¥10, with a bowl of beef vermicelli soup around ¥12. Order at the till, queue at the pass, eat standing.
A block of 1930s shikumen stone-gate housing turned into a maze of alleys barely two metres wide, packed with studios, tea shops and street snacks. Entry is free and laundry still hangs from upper windows above the shops.
The student strip beside Fudan University: barbecue skewers, Xinjiang lamb, milk tea and Korean fried chicken along a 700m pedestrian-friendly street. A full dinner with drinks rarely passes ¥50, and tables spill outside in warm months.
The working commuter ferry crosses to Pudong in about eight minutes alongside scooters and delivery bikes, with open-air deck views of both banks. Fares are ¥2 by transport card, boats run every 10-15 minutes from around 05:00 to 22:00.
A cramped storefront on the old Huanghe Road eating street turning out steamer baskets of crab-roe and pure pork soup dumplings from about ¥20. Twelve tables, shared seating, and it regularly sells out of crab roe by mid-afternoon.
At 140 hectares this is the largest park inside the inner ring: lake, birch groves, bamboo and long cycling paths, laid out by British designers in 2000. Entry is ¥10, open 07:00 to 18:00, and bike hire runs about ¥20 an hour.
A free 2.5km waterfront walk north of Waibaidu Bridge, and the only spot that frames the colonial Bund and the Lujiazui towers in one view. Benches, no ticket gate, and a fraction of the crowd standing on the Bund itself.